meaning and origin of the phrase ‘not Pygmalion likely’
euphemistic jocular variant of ‘not bloody likely’—UK, 1914—from the sensation caused by the use of the expletive ‘bloody’ in George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’
Read MoreTag: Australia
a Liverpudlian phrase: ‘don’t forget the diver’
1923—from Bernard Pykett’s plea when asking for money after his diving exhibitions—popularised from 1941 onwards by the BBC radio comedy programme It’s That Man Again
Read Morethe phrase ‘two hairs past a freckle’ and variants
used as a jocular reply by a person who does not have a watch, when asked what the time is—also ‘half past a freckle’, ‘according to the hairs on my wrist’
Read Morehistory of the phrase ‘(but) some — are more equal than others’
USA—from 1848 onwards in contrast to ‘all men are equal’—now often alludes to ‘but some animals are more equal than others’ in Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945)
Read Moreorigin of ‘first past the post’ (as applied to a voting system)
Australia and New Zealand 1913—alludes to horse racing, in which a horse wins a race by being the first to pass the finishing post
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘Dunkirk spirit’
1940 as ‘spirit of Dunkirk’—determination to endure hardship—refers to the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in May/June 1940
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘all-singing, all-dancing’
UK, 1959—having every desirable feature possible—from ‘all-singing, all-dancing’ as used in the billing given to film or stage musical productions
Read Moremeaning and evolution of ‘had one but the wheel(s) came off’
UK, 1924—used to indicate that the speaker has been inattentive or has not understood what has just been said
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘the silly season’
coined in The Saturday Review (London, 13 July 1861) about the shortage of important news in autumn in The Times of London
Read Morethe emergence of the political term ‘whataboutism’ in 1978
The Guardian, UK, 23 May 1978—used by one Lionel Bloch to designate—and denounce—the rhetoric employed by the advocates of the communist regimes
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word histories 